Names to be added to controversial Victims of Communism memorial next year

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The controversial Victims of Communism memorial opened Dec. 12 with organizers promising that the names of those to be honoured will be added to the site by next year.

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Dozens of people, including diplomats and community leaders, gathered for the opening of the memorial, located near the corner of Wellington and Bay streets.

Yvan Baker, the Liberal MP for Etobicoke Centre who was supposed to be the federal government official to inaugurate the memorial, did not show up at the event. Federal officials said he could not make the ceremony but no further details were provided.

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The unveiling was put on hold last year because of the controversy over parliamentarians honouring Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian Waffen SS soldier and potential links between the monument and Nazi collaborators, according to records obtained by the Ottawa Citizen. In addition, Jewish groups have voiced their ongoing concerns about the names of alleged Nazi collaborators and other fascists being inscribed on the memorial’s wall of remembrance.

But Ludwik Klimkowski, who leads the organization behind the memorial, said names will be added starting next year.

“Friends we hope to see you again in 2025 to tell you all about the journey of those are meant to be on the side of this wall of remembrance,” said Klimkowski, chair of the Tribute of Liberty organization. “If you don’t hear them today, you will hear them at that point.”

But when Klimkowski spoke about adding the names, a protester shouted “No Nazis.”

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism has already been the focus of multiple controversies over its exact purpose, location, size and cost over the last 15 years. The price tag for the project has ballooned to an estimated $7.5 million — including $6 million in public funds — from an original budget of $1.5 million. The memorial, originally started by the Conservative government of then-prime minister Stephen Harper, was supposed to be funded entirely through private donations.

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But taxpayers are now footing most of the bill as that private fundraising initiative fell far short when significant public financial support did not materialize.

Officials with a Holocaust education organization, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, said they remain concerned about the addition of the names. A report prepared for the Department of Canadian Heritage warned that between 50 and 60 of the names proposed for the memorial are alleged to be directly associated with the Nazis. The report recommended that more than half of the 550 names planned to go on the memorial be removed because it is too difficult to verify the backgrounds of the individuals and what they may or may not have done during the Second World War.

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center official Jaime Kirzner-Roberts said her organization asked for a commitment from Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge that such names not be inscribed on the monument but so far has not received such a promise. “So there is still a lot of work to be done and a lot of questions to be answered before we can feel confident that this memorial will not become an embarrassment for Canada,” she said Dec. 12. “Sad that we even have to say this, but any monument in our capital that celebrates Nazis is simply unacceptable.”

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Robert Tmej, a member of the board of directors of Tribute to Liberty, the charity started in 2008 to establish the memorial, said it was great to see the monument open. Still, it’s also “bittersweet” given that there has been controversy surrounding the initiative, he added.

Tmej said the list includes many people who sought refuge in Canada who don’t have an internet presence, meaning there’s no research on them. “They cannot be considered as fascists or Nazis just because either the government or the researchers didn’t do their job well enough to determine who these people were,” Tmej said.

Historians working for Canadian Heritage have pointed out that Nazi records are located in German government archives but it would take an enormous effort to examine the backgrounds of each person whose name is to go on the wall. Historians consulted by the department have repeatedly pointed out the easiest way out of the controversy would not to include any names at all.

Federal officials in other departments have also continued to warn Canadian Heritage that the inclusion of Nazi collaborators on the memorial will cause international embarrassment. “It is important to note that many anti-communist and anti-Soviet advocates and fighters were also active Nazi collaborators, who committed documented massacres,” Global Affairs Canada officials warned their counterparts at Canadian Heritage in 2021.

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Private donations had already been made to the monument in the names of Nazi collaborators, CBC News reported in July 2021. Those included Roman Shukhevych, a Ukrainian nationalist whose troops murdered Jews and Poles, and Ante Pavelić who ran a Nazi puppet regime in Croatia and is considered a chief perpetrator of the Holocaust in the Balkans, the CBC reported.

(With files from Catherine Morrison)

David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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